World Stem Cell Summit highlights advances in regenerative medicine

An organizer of the World Stem Cell Summit says one of the key problems medical researchers face these days is how to apply their findings in the real world.
"How do you take the phenomenal scientific research going on in labs and translate it into medical treatments,?" said Bernie Siegel, the founder and co-chair of the summit and executive director of the Genetic Policy Institute, which organized the event.
"It's a big job to do this, and more than just the science," Siegel said, noting that in a growing field now moving beyond basic lab research, the aim is to connect the people who do the work with those who finance it.
The three-day summit, which opened Monday in Pasadena, features more than 150 top international speakers and 50 hours of programming with leaders from science, pharmaceutics, business, policy, ethics, law and other fields.
The cell therapy industry, a "nascent" field, has emerged to be a potentially multi-billion business with unlimited potential, Siegel said.
Stephen Dalton, a University of Georgia professor, reported that one of the biggest developments in stem cell research in the past year was the realization that cells can be transdifferentiated from one state to another without returning to a pluripotent state.
Dalton said the principle was previously supported by a few isolated examples but it was not until 2010 that the idea was widely accepted.
Mark Sussman, a professor from San Diego State University, called the identification of lung stem cells from human tissue samples capable of regenerating the highly complex and specialized structures of mature lungs a breakthrough in lung biology and regenerative medicine.
He said results presented by the Anversa group in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrate that human lung stem cells can be expanded in vitro and also retain the capacity to integrate into adult tissue upon introduction into mice.
The study, Sussman said, has opened up an entirely new field of possibilities for lung regeneration and potential therapeutic applications for many conditions where treatment options are either very limited or nonexistent.
By:Chen Zhi
Courtesy:Xinhuanet.com

Denmark Becomes World's First To Slap 'Fat Tax' on Food

Denmark on Saturday imposed a fat tax on fatty foods and thus has become the first country in the world to do so. The consumers hoarded butter, pizza, meat and milk to avoid the immediate effects.
"We have had to stock up with tonnes of butter and margarine in order to be able to supply outlets," Soeren Joergensen of Arla Distribution told AFP.
The new tax, designed by Denmark's outgoing government as a health issue to limit the population's intake of fatty foods, will add 16 kroner ($2.87, 2.15 euros) per kilo (2.2 pounds) of saturated fats in a product.
This means an increase in the price of a pack of 250 grammes of butter, for example, by 2.20 kroner to more than 18 kroner.
"It has been a chaotic week with a lot of empty shelves. People have been filling their freezers," Christian Jensen of an independent local Copenhagen supermarket told AFP.
"But actually I don't think the tax will make that much difference. If people want to buy a cake, they will buy it. But right now they're saving money," he added.
The new tax will be levied on all products including saturated fats -- from butter and milk to pizzas, oils, meats and pre-cooked foods -- in a costing system that Denmark's Confederation of Industries (DI) says is a bureaucratic nightmare for producers and outlets.
"The way that this has been put together is an administrative nightmare, and I doubt whether it will give better health. It's more just a tax," DI foodstuffs spokeswoman Gitte Hestehave told AFP, adding that the costs of levying the tax would be passed on to consumers.

Does a Daily Dose of Aspirin Elevate Risk of Blindness?

A recent study probed into the link between consumption of a daily dose of aspirin and the risk of blindness in later life.Nearly 4,000 elderly people across Europe participated in the study and experts found that those who were on a daily dose of this drug carried double the risk of being diagnosed with  late stage age related macular degeneration, compared to those who were not taking aspirin regularly.
Many millions of people worldwide are put on a daily dose of aspirin in order to reduce risk of heart disease and stroke.
Experts feel the need to probe further about this perceived connection between daily consumption of aspirin and risk of AMD in later life.
Source:MedIndia

Link Between Hormonal Contraception and HIV Risk

In women, contraception ups risk of HIV infection, reveals recent study.
The research was carried out among 3,790 heterosexual couples in Africa where one partner had the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while the other was uninfected.The findings, if confirmed, could have huge repercussions for policies on contraception and HIV prevention.
The authors say it strengthens the need for safe-sex messages, in which the condom is promoted as a shield against the AIDS pathogen.
The couples were monitored for an average of 18 months during which 167 individuals became infected, 73 of them women, according to the paper appearing in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Transcribed into a benchmark of prevalence, HIV transmissions were 6.61 per 100 person-years in couples where women used hormonal contraception, compared to 3.78 per 100 person-years among those who did not.
Rates of infection from women to men were 2.61 per 100 person-years among women who used hormonal contraception, but 1.51 per 100 person-years among those who did not.
Most of the women who took hormone contraceptives used an injectable, long-lasting form such as the Depo-Provera shot. Only a small number used the Pill; in this group, there was an increase in HIV risk but not big enough to be conclusive.
Over the last two decades, scientists have launched several investigations into whether hormonal contraceptive use affects HIV risk, but the probes have returned conflicting results.

Alarming Depletion In Ozone Layer Above Arctic

A NASA-led study shows some alarming depletion of the ozone layer above the Arctic last winter and spring.
Consequently there was an unusually prolonged period of extremely low temperatures in the stratosphere. The findings have been published in Nature.
The researchers found the amount of ozone destroyed in the Arctic in 2011 was comparable to that seen in some years in the Antarctic, where an ozone “hole” has formed each spring since the mid 1980s. The stratospheric ozone layer, extending from about 15 to 35 kilometres above the surface, protects life on Earth from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays.
The scientists found that at some altitudes, the cold period in the Arctic lasted more than 30 days longer in 2011 than in any previously studied Arctic winter, leading to the unprecedented ozone loss. Further studies are needed to determine what factors caused the cold period to last so long.
The Antarctic ozone hole forms when extremely cold conditions, common in the winter Antarctic stratosphere, trigger reactions that convert atmospheric chlorine from human-produced chemicals into forms that destroy ozone. While the same ozone-loss processes occur each winter in the Arctic, the generally warmer stratospheric conditions there limit the area affected and the time frame during which the chemical reactions occur. This means there is generally far less ozone loss in most years in the Arctic than in the Antarctic.
To investigate the 2011 Arctic ozone loss, University of Toronto physicist Kaley Walker and scientists from 18 other institutions in nine countries (United States, Germany, The Netherlands, Russia, Finland, Denmark, Japan and Spain) analyzed a comprehensive set of measurements. These included daily global observations of trace gases and clouds from NASA’s Aura and CALIPSO spacecraft; ozone measured by instrumented balloons; meteorological data and atmospheric models. The University of Toronto team contributed to the balloon-borne data with measurements from Eureka, Nunavut, located at 80 ºN (1,100 km from the North Pole). The team was participating in a Canadian Space Agency-funded project making springtime measurements to verify the performance of a Canadian satellite called the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE).

New Genetic Model for Human Disease Proposed

Based on a wide variety of genetic studies and analysis - four Houston leaders in the field of genetics have proposed a unified genetic model for human disease.
"What emerges is a unified picture whereby previously distinct entities or categories of human diseases, chromosomal syndromes, genomic disorders, Mendelian disease, and multifactorial or complex traits, can now be considered as part of one continuum whereby common and rare variants including de novo (new) mutations in the context of environmental influences result in perturbation of the biological balance of a restricted set of networks activating final common pathways that ultimately cause disease," the authors wrote in an article that appears in the current issue of the journal Cell.
The authors include Dr. James Lupski, vice chair of molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine; Dr. Richard Gibbs, director of the Dr. John Belmont, professor of molecular and human genetics at BCM, and Dr. Eric Boerwinkle, professor and director of the division of epidemiology at The University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston.
In other words, all kinds of genetic variation – changes in single genes (single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs), deletions or duplications of a large part of chromosomes (copy number variation), rare genetic variants, common variants – all play a role in a person's biologic continuum, health and risk of disease, said Lupski, also a professor of pediatrics.

Mechanism To Protect Against Infections At Mucosal Linings

Researchers have identified a mechanism that could help the body protect itself against infections at mucosal linings - which include the mouth, the intestines, the lungs and other areas. These are the main entry points for many viruses and other infectious organisms.The findings of the research team at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology have been published online today in the journal Nature Immunolog.
The team, led by Hilde Cheroutre, Ph.D., conducted their experiments in mouse models using Listeria
“We are hopeful that our findings will open the door to creating strategies to bring stronger immune memory (cells) to the mucosal borders,” Dr. Cheroutre said.
Memory cells are important since they can persist for the life of the individual and will act rapidly upon encountering the same infection later in life to provide immediate protection. The generation of pre-existing immune memory is the basis for successful vaccination, which works by administering non-dangerous, pathogen-like antigens, which trigger the body to develop immune memory cells that will fight the virus or bacteria if seen again.
Specifically, the researchers discovered that the body has a distinct process for establishing strong immunity at the mucosal borders. They also identified a molecule for showing that mucosal protective immune cells are in place, which is a major finding that could significantly aid researchers worldwide in future vaccine design. The molecule is CD8aa.
“We found a specific mechanism that selectively sorts out the best T cells (CD8aa) to become memory T cells at the (mucosal) border,” said Dr. Cheroutre. T cells are the body’s infection fighting white blood cells. “The immune system has developed a very ingenuous system to make that selection and to ensure that the ones that reside at the (mucosal) border are the fittest T cells.”